 Seven seals, seven rings, seven brides for the Scarlet King. They gather around the natal bed, the foolish and the wise. They fear the child yet to be born, whose voice shall run in the skies. The faithful watch the forest for the coming of the King. Their lanterns bright, they wait at night, for the new world he shall bring. The dragon waits in shadows, his breath will scorch the land. The hero in the castle draws his sword and makes his stand. The princess in the tower is hidden far away, but nothing under heaven can keep the groom at bay. They gather around with leering smiles, the soulless and the dead, though her soul unwinds the cruelest minds will keep her in her bed. The potter told his apprentice to prepare him seven jars, six he made with grace and skill, the last his hands did mar. The Cretan moon no more is howling, gone its morning black. In their dreams its face is prowling, come to take them back. The king is in his courting clothes, the brides are in their beds. The unborn princes wait in sleep to raise their eager heads. The hens were in the hen house, and seven eggs did lay, till the fox crept in by dark of night, and stole the eggs away. Six were broken by their bindings, six no more shall sing, comes the seventh full unwinding, and all the bells will ring. When the first had given birth, then all the birds did sing, her screaming cries did shake the skies, as she called out for her king. By doctors blade the second bade, a life into the world, untimely hewn, neither the silent moon, the king's red flag unfurled. His bride the third remained unheard, her cries for help ignored. She stopped her life with the surgeon's knife, and gave it to our lord. The fourth prepares a dagger, and places it at her heart. The perfect cure cannot make pure what the king has set apart. The fifth one's crown was bearing down upon the fox's set. The den was sundered with mighty thunder, an apocalypse beget. On the sixth day, the walls gave way, and oceans turned to ash. Her birth gave work, as the earth shook, underneath the king's fell lash. The seventh bride will break the tides, and the moon no more will shine. There comes a day, not far away, she'll birth the death of time. Let's talk about how you're wrong about the Scarlet King. SCP-231's special personnel requirements is a bit of a mystery to many people, mainly because a lot of what's actually going on behind the scenes is deliberately kept questionable in order to allow, let's say, some less than ideal implications to kind of just float. The truth of the matter is that the original author didn't really have an idea of what was going on in the article, and just kind of left it up to people's imagination deliberately, with a lot of very, let's say, less than subtle hints about what was going on. But in the end, the important part is that SCP-231 is an anomaly that is supposed to be used to keep the Scarlet King from reaching reality and coming through and destroying the world. But what is the Scarlet King exactly? Well, that's actually sort of questionable. In the end, there is a tale on the SCP Wiki written by Dejork called Dust and Blood, which covers a little bit of a sort of alternate reality where the Scarlet King eventually manages to make it through. It kind of explains things like, you know, the broken god being defeated and the serpent. There's a lot of different, let's just say, SCP lore concepts that are covered in here in hell. There's even the king on the gallows and he who was hung, which is the hanged king, which we're going to get into in a little bit because, honestly, a lot of what makes this Scarlet King into what he is, is drawn from many sources, but the king in yellow is definitely one of the sources that he draws from. And of course, if you know anything about the king in yellow, it's about essentially there's a play in the stories that if anyone reads it, they go mad, which is very similar to the ideas behind the tragedy of the hanged king. But in Dust and Blood, the hanged king is kind of a lieutenant of sorts to the Scarlet King. Honestly, when we talk about the Scarlet King, we have to think about the things that inspired it. That would be the Cthulhu mythos. The stuff that predates the Cthulhu mythos. The stuff that came after. And of course, I think it would be dishonest not to mention the Crimson King from Stephen King's work. There's a lot of kings in here, by the way. But the thing about SCP-231 isn't necessarily what's on the surface. It's never been about what's on the surface, really. I mean, sure, in the story, there are seven brides of the Scarlet King that are all pregnant. And there are stories that are told about what these, let's say, brides had as children. There's some theory crafting that SCP-682 is one of the children that was birthed out of the Scarlet King's brides. There's also, funnily enough, that SCP-999 is of, yes, that one, is meant to eventually either destroy 682 or destroy the Scarlet King, which is an interesting idea, I suppose. But the important part about this is that the Scarlet King's brides and their purpose is actually explained to the Foundation by an incredibly unreliable narrator. See, the information they have on how to keep the Scarlet King contained is actually based on notebooks they got from a cult called The Children of the Scarlet King, which, if you think about it, makes absolutely no sense, and there's a very strong chance that they're being misled, but they take it as absolute gospel. But, of course, SCP-231-1-6 are all dead, and as each of them died, either an entity was birthed into the world that caused incredible trouble or the world had some sort of apocalyptic thing happen to it. And you'll see a lot of the words like thing and event in here because there's so many black boxes on the article itself. And, you know, one of the more compelling things about the Scarlet King mythos is that on the Wiki, it's not really explored all that much. There's maybe five good articles about it, and that's about it, and I'm including tales. Like there's the one SCP, SCP-231, maybe four or five extra tales that kind of expand on it or based on it, and that's it. The Scarlet King stays some sort of mystery because I think a lot of people don't want to touch the SCP-231 concepts, especially in the modern age. In 10 years ago, well, 11-ish years ago, it was maybe made more sense, but right now, I mean, it's essentially very much trying to sell you on the idea that a sexual assault on this girl is somehow keeping the world safe, even if it doesn't say it explicitly. And this is a bad thing, from a writing perspective, and in universe perspective, obviously, but from a writing perspective, it's just, it's very clumsy. Of course, there are some tales about 231 by DJ Cactus called Fear Alone, and he wrote it, he wrote Fear Alone, which is probably a lot of people's preferred explanation of what's going on in 231 just because it's a lot less uncomfortable, but the idea is that everyone just needs to think it's some terrible, horrible thing, and in reality, it's nothing like that. The fear alone is what keeps the Scarlet King at bay. Of course, there are plenty of arguments to be made that what the Foundation is doing, or not doing, is actually helping the Scarlet King, because as I said earlier, most of the information on what the purpose of SCP-231's all seven of them were, is kind of comes from the Scarlet King's followers, and that poem that I read at the very beginning of the video here is actually a special little note that you will find if you look at the page source for the article itself. There's a bunch of size zero text in it. I left a few things out. You came here looking for secret messages, didn't you? It grabs on you, doesn't it? The fascination, the intrigue, the mystery. You keep searching for answers. You're looking in the wrong place, and then of course there's the poem that I gave you earlier, but there's also four different Bible verses that are quoted, and it doesn't actually put the verses, I mean it doesn't put the actual text of the verses in. It just says like, for example, revelations 1821 through 24, and that's all it says. There's also one that stands out, and it's sort of important to understanding most of these interpretations, because while everything else is size zero, and therefore completely invisible, this particular bit of text is size one percent, which means it should technically still be visible on the screen, and if you look real close you could find it. But it says, don't believe it when they say they're trying to save her. Why would they bother? They've got exactly what they want, exactly where they want it. And then after this line, the poem shifts considerably. See before that line was the poem I mentioned earlier. After that the poem shifts in style, and it almost seems like it's written by a different person. It just feels as though there's a different writer, maybe a more modern writer. The doctor never tells his god which one he really seeks. Instead he hides himself away, and quietly he weeps. The god's own voice he makes the choice, declaring with their word, in fear and pain let her remain lest she be like the third. The doctor's gun ended his run, as he put it to his ear, as she was defiled the pity child he gave in to his fear. Her memory a fickle thing the strongest shall endure when her weeping starts to waver. Their drugs make her mind pure. So the first half very much feels like it was written a long, long time ago, and the second half that I just quoted feels like it was written very recently, because it mentions things like drugs and gun. And ended his run as a very modern phrase. So it's very possible that the doctor who says don't believe it when they say they're trying to save her. Why would they bother? They've got exactly what they want, where they want it, is actually, you know, the person who wrote the second half of this poem. But that's just kind of a short version of what's going on in this particular SCP. I didn't want to go into too much detail because of the subject matter we're talking about. I'm going to close out by reading the various quoted bible scriptures that are hidden in SCP-231's text. The first one I'm going to read to you, it's not the first one listed, but it's the first one I'm going to read, is from Revelations, Revelations 1821 through 24. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more in thee, and no craftsmen of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee. And the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee. And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride, this is important because we're talking about brides and bridegrooms here, and that's very key to this girl at Kings Mythos, shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And there's that one, there's also Ezekiel 614, so I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate. Yes, more desolate than the wilderness towards Dibblah in all their dwelling places, and then they shall know that I am the Lord. And that's followed by Proverbs 132, for the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Now all of this leads to the idea that if the Scarlet King gets out he is going to destroy absolutely everything, and that there will be nothing left of the world. But the last quote, which really drives home the point, is Luke 2334. Then said Jesus, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Anyway, that's it. If you liked it scroll down and hit the subscribe button, because if you don't I'm going to activate the failsafe nuke. And if you really like this kind of content head on over to patreon.com and pledge at any level, like everybody here on the screen already has. It's nice to know that I'm not alone out here. I'll see you all again on Thursday. Oh and by the way you, yeah you, John, I'm going to have you scroll down right now and hit the subscribe button and then you're going to head on over to patreon and you're going to pledge at some level that doesn't make me angry at you. I'm not joking, John. Do it right now.